


hey now we’ll be okay

by fullsuuuuuun



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Light Angst, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24804253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullsuuuuuun/pseuds/fullsuuuuuun
Summary: joohyun looked composed. of course, she was a mess on the inside, but she has a calm aura that gives off the illusion that she’s taking things well. seulgi knew she wasn’t.
Relationships: Bae Joohyun | Irene & Kang Seulgi, Bae Joohyun | Irene/Kang Seulgi
Kudos: 28





	hey now we’ll be okay

**Author's Note:**

> hi this is my first work here! please enjoy :]

joohyun was generally considered a mom-type of friend. the passport collector, the girl who cooked for her friends on their birthdays, one of the older idols of the 3rd generation. she liked taking care of people. from pre-debut days, where she would iron her maknaes school uniforms, to now being known as the strong yet gentle leader of red velvet, joohyun had always taken care of and protected people.

seulgi has known joohyun for many years, they’re best friends, soulmates even. seulgi, over the other members of red velvet, has heard most about joohyun’s struggles. joohyun could never tell them to the maknaes, who didn’t need the burden of their leaders' worries. that left her with seulgi and seungwan.

looking at joohyun, seulgi knew that the most they got, were crumbs. seungwan and seulgi had talked about it a lot, sometimes with sooyoung and yerim, how to subtly take care of their leader, without joohyun noticing, and building up more walls. she could never fully open up to seungwan, not after the dieting sm forced upon her, that was something joohyun blamed herself for too.

seungwan’s SBS accident was one of the worse things that had happened to them as a group.

it wasn’t staff members or even the members of red velvet who found wendy that day. it was solar who was the one who found seungwan, lying on the floor, probably in agony, still holding on to her mic. joohyun had asked solar to retell the story many times. it was a simple story really, solar found seungwan on the cold floor, mic still in hand, and immediately alerted the crew and called an ambulance. seulgi had cried. sooyoung and yerim cried. joohyun was trying to stay strong. seulgi could see her best friend getting caught up in bad thoughts, she knew that joohyun would slowly deteriorate, but she would have to put others before her today as she’d always done.

joohyun looked exhausted. her eyes with badly covered up bags and her hair looked greasy. seulgi was sure she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep since it happened. she tended to lose sleep, hiding in her own mind, thinking toxic thoughts of guilt and self-blame. despite her state, joohyun looked composed. of course, she was a mess on the inside, but she has a calm aura that gives off the illusion that she’s taking things well. seulgi knew she wasn’t.

all the members were in the waiting rooms. anxiously waiting for news about their friends’ condition. joohyun, despite her state of being, was comforting yerim who, while not as bad as joohyun, also looked terrible. seulgi had always admired how much joohyun cared for their maknae. she practically raised her. from the start, SM had set yerim up for a lot of hate, just to cover up their own dirty scandals. they all tried to shield yerim from that, especially joohyun. seulgi didn’t know if joohyun considered yerim to be like her daughter or little sister, but she was so precociously protective.

the energy in the waiting room at the hospital was obviously very bad. no one tried to brighten up the mood, no one really said anything. their schedules were cleared for the day and they obviously couldn’t go perform as only 4 members. which meant all they could do was wait. and wait. and think.

seulgi looked at joohyun and yerim, who was resting her head on joohyun’s shoulder, asleep. sooyoung was curled up in a chair. it looked like she was sleeping, but seulgi wasn’t sure.

joohyun was clearly thinking hard. while her face wasn’t expressive, her eyes were a whole other story. you could see a world of thoughts. seulgi knew that she couldn’t be thinking anything good. now it was seulgi’s time to protect a bit.

“unnie?”

joohyun blinked a couple of times before looking at seulgi with a questioning look. seulgi had successfully pulled her friend out of her thoughts. what now? she glanced at sooyoung to see the younger girl’s eyes open and looking just as expectantly at seulgi as joohyun was.

“i’m hungry.” the execution wasn’t that great. it wasn’t a very creative ‘get joohyun out of her mind’ plan. the room was silent for a moment, joohyun still hadn’t said anything, when sooyoung joined in on the plan. she didn’t say anything, but she nodded in agreement, making sure joohyun saw. with two members in on it, joohyun couldn’t possibly say no.

joohyun put on a soft, if not a bit forced, smile and stood up, making sure yerim was as comfortable as she could be in the small seat. when she was standing up properly, she turned to sooyoung and asked

“sooyoung-ah will you stay here with yerim, while seulgi and i get something for us to eat?”

sooyoung smiled at joohyun and nodded before sitting in the seat next to yerim, taking over joohyun’s roll as yerim’s pillow.

joohyun took seulgi’s hand in hers, and together they left the waiting room. seulgi had been shy at first with joohyun’s handholding and arm-linking, but after years of it, she really couldn’t live without it. it was a comfortable sign of trust and friendship between them and the rest of the members. the best thing about it was that joohyun usually was the initiator.

“you’re hungry huh?” joohyun asked while leading seulgi through the hallways and towards the exit of the hospital. seulgi was looking down at the floor. they had to be careful not to be spotted by fans. sm had already released a statement. they couldn’t know if some fans would ignore basic boundaries and try to look for them at a hospital of all places.

seulgi knew joohyun. so, she knew that joohyun wasn’t stupid and was aware of what seulgi was doing. seulgi was thankful that joohyun went along with it because at that moment she realized that she was indeed very hungry.

“haven’t really had time for a good meal.” from when they first got news of what happened, to now, waiting for more details about seungwan’s condition, no one has had a good meal. their manager brought them some snacks from a vending machine. joohyun didn’t eat any.

“well, if your definition of a good meal is cheap grocery store snacks then you can look forward to that.”

“it’s an upgrade from vending machine snacks don’t you think?” seulgi didn’t know if it was too early for some mild banter. that was until she heard a chuckle and looked up from the floor to see joohyun with a small smile on her face. seulgi counted that as an absolute win. she leaned a bit closer to joohyun.

seulgi had lost track of time and was surprised to leave the hospital, only to go into dark empty streets. joohyun seemed surprised too.

“i didn’t realize what time it was. now we can’t surprise the girls with expensive coffee.”

seulgi snorted, of course, joohyun had planned to buy them coffee, she didn’t even like coffee. seulgi was thankful that joohyun didn’t like coffee. if she did, she’d no doubt be addicted to it.

they walked through the streets, joohyun leading them towards a 24/7 grocery store. they didn’t really talk much but the atmosphere wasn’t tense. the two of them alone were rarely tense.

they went into the store and made their way towards the snack session to look at what there was. joohyun let go of seulgi’s hand to pick some snacks from the shelves. seulgi went towards the fridges in the back of the store to buy some bottled water and juice. the cashier thankfully didn’t seem to recognize them. they left the store with a good number of snacks.

they couldn’t hold hands on their way back to the hospital. seulgi missed the comfort but it was also a bit amusing to see joohyun carry a stupid number of things with such ease. the fans joked about joohyun being able to hold too many things with her small hands. seulgi thought it was in a weird correlation with her need to put others before her, carrying all these things for others while still carrying her own things, never asking for help.

seulgi’s train of thought was interrupted by the sound of joohyun’s phone ringing. seulgi immediately reached out to take the snacks out of joohyun’s hands so she could pick up the phone.

“yea we’re on our way back… we’ll be there as soon as possible… bye.”

joohyun slightly good mood from before was replaced with worry and excitement. “we can visit seungwan. sooyoung and yerim are with her right now!”

“that’s great! let’s go!” seulgi hands were full so she couldn’t even drag joohyun with her as she sped up by maybe a bit too much. it didn’t matter because joohyun was almost running. they hurried their way through the streets and made it to the hospital in record time.

-

“joohyun-unnie you look like shit.” seulgi didn’t know what seungwan must be on to ask so boldly but seulgi couldn’t help but agree.

“yah! you should look at yourself in the mirror.”

they had just entered the room. joohyun immediately went to hear about seungwan’s condition from the doctors. seulgi hadn’t heard the details, but she knew that seungwan was looking forward to a long recovery process.

“i’m the one who fell from a platform almost 3 meters tall. what have you been up to unnie?”

joohyun had been looking queasy, hearing about her friend’s injuries, but speaking so casually with seungwan clearly eased some of her worries because she playfully stuck her tongue out at seungwan instead of answering her question.

they were all surrounding seungwan’s hospital bed, eating the snacks joohyun and seulgi had provided. the doctors and their manager were giving them some alone time. to what? catch up and figure things out? they couldn’t take a break, not in the middle of award season. joohyun had to host the KBS song festival soon. there was no way they could promote psycho as 4 members. it was all so unfair.

“seulgi i can hear you thinking. loudly.”

seulgi looked at seungwan. she looked bad, but out of all the attitudes in the room, she had the best.

“i’m not okay right now and it’ll be a while, but i don’t want you to beat yourselves up over what happened,” she looked at joohyun, “you weren’t there so you couldn’t have done anything. and it's not your fault for not being there in the first place, you needed the rest.”

“i know you’re beating yourself up over it. promise me you’ll take better care of yourself unnie.”

joohyun smiled and nodded her head and was about to answer seungwan when their manager came into the room.

“irene i’m sorry but we have to go prepare for KBS now”

joohyun nodded again but this time her mood was gloomier. she went over to seungwan and hugged her. seungwan whispered something to her and joohyun shakes her head slightly, smiling, before leaving the room with their manager.

conversation picked up between the remaining members, but seulgi felt worried for her friend. she’d have to pretend to be fine in front a huge audience, on national television.

while the other members were chatting, seulgi opened her phone and opened her texts. NCT are gonna be at KBS, and even though they are all younger than joohyun, they can look out for her. just a little bit.

to johnny 03:23

look out for our irene unnie will you?

**Author's Note:**

> i like the thought of johnny, irene and seulgi all being good friends after training together for so long sooooo


End file.
